A hotfix is available to let you configure a cluster node that does not have quorum votes in Windows Server 2008 and in Windows Server 2008 R2

Windows Server FailoverClustering (WSFC) uses a majority of votes to establish a quorum for determining cluster membership. Votes are assigned to nodes in the cluster or to a witness that is either a disk or a file share witness. You can use the Configure Cluster Quorum Wizard to configure the clusters quorum model. When you configure a Node Majority, Node and Disk Majority, or Node and File Share Majority quorum model, all nodes in the cluster are each assigned one vote. WSFC does not let you select the cluster nodes that vote for determining quorum. After you apply this hotfix, you can configure a cluster node that does not have quorum votes.

The NodeWeight common property for nodes This property can be configured by using either the Get-ClusterNodeWindowsPowerShell cmdlet or the Cluster.exe command. For example, you run the following command at a command prompt:

Cluster.exe . node <NodeName> /prop NodeWeight=0

To query the NodeWeight common property, you can use the following PowerShell cmdlet command:

Get-ClusterNode “NodeName” | fl *

To modify the NodeWeight property, you can use the following PowerShell cmdlet command:

(Get-ClusterNode “NodeName”).NodeWeight = 0

A new NodeWeight property is added to the MSCluster_Node WMI class to let you manage node weights by using WMI.

The PreventQuorum (PQ) switch This switch starts the Cluster service (ClusSvc) and prevents a node from reaching quorum. The Cluster service can be started by using the PQ switch. For example, you can run the following command at a command prompt:

NET START ClusSvc /PQ

The PQ switch can be used to enforce the cluster owner and to maintain consistency in the Cluster database.